About Me

I'm Emily! I'll start by saying that I do not live in New York City. 

People who are thinking of making a trip to New York City often ask me if I can give them any advice for their trip. I have spent quite a bit of time there and have a natural sense of direction, so I guess people feel like they can count on me for good suggestions and ideas to help them plan their trip. Many of these people are visiting for the first time, or for the first time on their own (as in, not with a tour group, school group, etc.)

I was born and raised in Virginia, in a town without any stoplights, fast food restaurants, or anything else of that nature. Those amenities, as well as the mall, were about an hour drive away; yes, bring on the redneck hick jokes, but we even had to drive an hour to get to a Walmart. It was the complete opposite of a city like New York. I moved away after high school, and although I didn't go straight to New York, I made it a goal of mine to go as soon as possible and to eventually live there.

My first visit to NY was on a mission trip to a private Christian school in Harlem. A second trip was taken when my friend Amie moved in with me during my college years; she was a New York Law School student doing a summer internship in my town, and I went with her to her place in New York City a couple of times. Both of these trips helped me to realized that NYC wasn't as crazy as expected, and if you're not in the middle of tourist traps, it's not as crowded as expected. It also taught me that I had to walk super fast (luckily, I had that down,) and that the subway system is only intimidating the first time.

My most extended stay came in the summer of 2009 when I was taking a summer session photography class at Parsons The New School for Design. My dorm was on West 13th Street between 6th & 7th Avenues; this part of town is called Greenwich Village, but is incredibly close to both Chelsea and the West Village. (The boundaries between neighborhoods seem to differ depending on who you talk to, so when you're close to those boundaries it's sometimes up to you to decide where you are.)

Since attending Parsons, I continue to visit the city and my friends there on a frequent basis. I try to go up at least once every few months (which is becoming increasingly difficult now that I work full time!)

For those first time travelers who have never been to New York, I can understand the intimidation. I think that after living in such a small town, or smaller cities for an entire life, a place like NYC just seems so big, scary, and impossible to navigate. I've been happy to answer these questions with much more information than they've needed, and hopefully I've helped to make some friends' first-time trips to NYC fun and easy! Instead of typing any more drawn-out Facebook messages, I'll continue to update this page, and just send them a link. Hopefully I can help even more people than ask me.

My first tip for traveling, a quote by Susan Butler Anerson:
“Lay out all of your clothes, and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.”

Please feel free to contact me! You may email me for any of the following reasons:

• If you have a question about an upcoming trip you're about to take, and need some help or tips,
• If you'd like to correct me about something I've written about,
• If you know of any places that may be worth mentioning on this blog, or
• If you're interested in a sponsored post or advertising space on my blog. 

(Disclaimer incoming...) Not everything I say on this site should be taken as fact; much of it is purely my opinion. As someone who has never stayed in NYC longer than a month at a time, I'm definitely not a New York pro, nor do I think I am. It is very possible for me to get some things wrong, just like any other human being, and I prefer not to be blasted for my mistakes. (You may correctly me if you'd like by contacting me.) I am simply a Virginia girl, in love with New York City, trying to give my best advice based on my experiences so others will be more comfortable visiting the city themselves.